The Prevention Behaviors and Impact Mechanisms Among Different Chinese Social Classes at the Early Stage of COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Xiaoxin Li,1 Shen-Long Yang,2 Jing Li,3 Ting-Ting Rao,2 Chuangang Shen,4 Sanman Hu,4 Yongyu Guo5 1Center of Mental Health Education, Huaqiao University, Quanzhou, 362021, People’s Republic of China; 2School of Humanities and Social Science, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, People’s Republic of China; 3School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Key Laboratory of Cyberpsychology and Behavior, Ministry of Education, and Hubei Human Development and Mental Health Key Laboratory, Wuhan, 430079, People’s Republic of China; 4College of Business Administration, Huaqiao University, Quanzhou, 362021, People’s Republic of China; 5School of Psychology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210097, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Shen-Long Yang; Yongyu Guo, Tel [phone], Email [email protected]; [email protected]: Whether the pandemic can be effectively prevented and controlled depends on the entire population’s adherence to recommendations and preventive behaviors. The present study aimed to investigate the social class differences and internal mechanisms of prevention behaviors in the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: We conducted an online cross-sectional survey among the general Chinese population at the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey website’s subscribers could access the questionnaire through the Tencent online platform, and a total of 1948 participants voluntarily completed it. Most of the participants were female (n = 1257, 64.528%), between the ages of 18– 29 (n = 999, 51.284%), university graduates (n = 1015, 52.105%), and had an annual family income below 100,000 yuan (n = 1119, 57.444%). The differences in COVID-19 prevention behaviors among different social classes, the mediating role of infectious threat perception and the moderating role of perceived epidemic transparency were examined.Results: 1) There were significant differences in prevention behaviors among different social classes. 2) The level of infectious threat perception played a mediating role in the relationship between social class and prevention behavior. When the individuals were from a lower social class, the level of threat perception and the level of COVID-19 prevention behaviors were also lower. 3) Perceived epidemic transparency played a moderating role in the relationship between social class and COVID-19 prevention behavior. It also played a moderating role in the relationship between social class and infectious threat perception.Conclusion: In the implementation of epidemic prevention and control measures, different social classes should be targeted and guided differently. In particular, lower-class individuals can be guided by improving the perceptions of epidemic transparency and infectious threat.Keywords: social class, infectious threat perception, COVID-19 prevention behaviors, perceived epidemic transparency

Keywords

• social class
• infectious threat perception
• covid-19 prevention behaviors
• perceived epidemic transparency